Psalms 109

also, and Manasseh, who were lately under another king, (2 Sam. ii. 9.) have submitted themselves to me; and so hath the tribe of Ephraim, which is a main support of my authority; these, and all the rest of the tribes of Israel, are united to the royal tribe of Judah; which (according to the prophecy of our forefather, Gen.xlix. 10.) supplies me with wise and able men to administer the laws, and order the affairs of my kingdom. Vcr. 9. Moab is my ivash-pot; overEdom will I cast out my shoe; over Philistia will I triumph.’] Which shall now extend itself beyond the bounds of this country; for I will tread the Moabites under my feet, and reduce them to the vilest servitude: (2 Sam. viii. 2.) I will trample also upon the Edomitcs, and make them my slaves: (ver. 14.) the Philistines also, whom I have begun to smite, (2 Sam. v. 17. 22, &c.) shall add to my triumphs, and be forced to submit unto me, as their conquering lord, (viii. 1.) To tlie chief Musician. A Psalm of David. Most interpreters consent to the opinion of Abcn Ezra and D. Kimchi, that David (to whom the title ascribes this Psalm) hath respect here, in the first place, to the grievous persecution which he suffered by Saul, and some of his court: who would let him enjoy no rest, but having driven him from his own house, pursued him so close, wheresoever he heard he was, that he could have no certain dwelling: but became like a locust, (as he speaks vcr. 23.) which, having no nest, (as Bochartus observes, par. ii. lib. iv. de Animal. Sac. cap. 2.) leaps orflicsfrom hedge to hedge; as he did from place to place. To provoke Saul to this rage against him, as they all loaded him with many calumnies, (which made David curse them to Saul’s face, 1 Sam. xxvi. 19.) so one especially among the rest, who is generally thought to bc.Doeg the Edomitc, was notoriously guilty of this wickedness: whom, by a prophetical spirit, he here *nost solemnly curses, iu a direful manner; and pronounces the heaviest judgment upon him and his family: his inhuman villany being so great, that it made him an exact picture of the traitor Judas, to whom the apostle St. Peter, (Acts i. 20.) applies the eighth verse of this Psalm. The rest of which is spent in prayer to God, against such false accusers; and in vows of tho praises he would give him, when he was delivered from the mischief which thereby they designed to him. Accordingly, when he was settled in his throne, he sent this Psalm, among others, unto the master of music in the tabernacle; to perpetuate the memory of God’s mercy to him. Concerning such imprecations as we here meet withal, see the Argument of Psal. xxxv. which is of the same nature with this.

Psalms 109:1

JJLOLD not thy peace, O God of my praise. O God, the supreme judge of the world, who, as thou hast given me hitherto continual cause to praise thee, so I hope wilt still vindicate my honour; I appeal unto thy majesty: beseeching thee to declare thyself on my side; and make it appear that I am innocent.

Psalms 109:2

For the mouth of the wicked, and the mouth of the deceitful, are opened against me: they have spoken against me with a lying tongue. For men of no conscience have taken the liberty to invent tho most mischievous lies of me; whereby, though they always speak me fair to my face, they have wickedly traduced mc to Saul behind my back:

Psalms 109:3

TJiey compassed me about also ivith words of hatred; and fought against me without a cause. And spread those false reports so diligently, that I find they have made me odious every where: and thereupon, without any provocation from me, have levied war against me, to take away my lifc,(lSam.xxiii.8. 25.)

Psalms 109:4

For my love they are my adversaries: but I give myself unto prayer. Who have been so far from doing them any harm, that I have deserved well of them: (1 Sam. xix. 4, 5.) and even now, when they requite my kindness with endeavours to destroy mc, do nothing but recommend myself by prayer to thy protection; refusing to make use of the opportunity I had to revenge myself upon them, (1 Sam. xxiv. 9, 10, &c) Vcr. 5. And they have rewarded me evil for good, and liatred for my love.] And yet this will not mollify them, but still they are so extremely ungrateful, as to repay my kindness with new attempts to do mc mischief; (1 Sam. xxvi. 2.) and the more affection I express, with the greater hatred am I prosecuted; Vcr. 6. Set thou a wicked man over him; and let Satan stand at his right hand.] So implacable is his malice, who is the principal author of the calumnies wherewith 1 am loaded, (1 Sam.xxii.9. 11.) against whom, therefore, I implore thy justice, O most righteous Judge of the world: let the worst man that can be found be appointed to hear his cause when he is accused, and his most malicious adversary plead against him.

Psalms 109:7

When he shall be judged, let him be condemned; and let his prayer become sin. When sentence is given let him be condemned to be as guilty, as really he is; and if he petition for a pardon, let it not only be rejected, but prove an aggravation of his crimes.

Psalms 109:8

Let his days be few; and let another take his office. Let him (and the false traitor, who in future times will use the Messiah as now they do me) be cut off before his time: and his office, (1 Sam. xxi. 7. xxii. 9.) wherein he behaves himselfwith such insufferable insolence and falsehood, be transferred to a better man;

Psalms 109:9

Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow. Let not his fatherless children succeed him in anything that he Jiath; nor his wido\V have any thing left to maintain her.

Psalms 109:10

Who will bring me into the strong city? who will lead me into Edom?. These are difficult things indeed; and I may well ask, when t consider how potent these nations arc, by what power or force I shall be able, to enter that strongly-fenced city, in the frontiers of their country? who is it that will conduct mo into Idumea, and make me a master of it? Vcr. 11. Wilt not thou, O God, who hast cast us off? and wilt not thou, O God, go forth with our hosts?] But I can soon answer myself: for why should I despair of thy presence with us, O God of all power and might; who formerly indeed didst reject us, and forsake the conduct of our armies; (1 Sam. xxxi. 1. 7.) but now, I hope, wilt graciously aid us, and make us victorious. Let his children be continually Vagabonds, and beg: let them seek their bread also out of their desolate places.] Let thein not have so much as a* house wherein to put their heads; but be perpetual vagabonds, supporting a miserable life by begging an alms^ and seeking where to lodge, because their own dwellings are laid waste &nd desolate.

Psalms 109:11

Let the extortioner catch all that he hath; and let the stranger spoil his labour. Let his creditor (pretending a judgment) seize oft all his estate J and a stranger, by that means, reap the fruit of all his care and labour.

Psalms 109:12

Give xcs help from trouble: for vain is the help of man. Do not frustrate these hopes; but afford us thy help against the Syrians also, (2 Sam. viii. 5.) now that they distress us: for no human force is able to deliver us, nor have we any confidence in it, but in thee alone. Let there be none to extend mercy nftto him; neither let there be any to favour his fatherless children.] Let no man shew the least kindness to his memory; or upon that account bestow an alms upon his fatherless children.

Psalms 109:13

Through God we shall do. valiantly:for he it is that shall tread down our enemies. By whose assistance we will behave ourselves courageously, and do valiant acts: for God mil utterly rout our enemies; and tread them down like the mire in the streets. Let his posterity be cut off; and in the generation following let their name be blotted out.] Let them rather be odious for his sake, and the sooner destroyed: so that they be the last of the name; and, in the next generation, not one of that family be found.

Psalms 109:14

Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered with the Lord; and let not the sin 6f his mother be blotted out. Bat, according to the just sentence of thy law, (Exod. xx. 5.) let the punishments (which were due long ago, but thy patience moved thee to forbear) fall all upon him; let him suffer for the siris of his prdgenitors on both sides; in whose wicked steps he would not cease to tread.

Psalms 109:15

Let them be before the Lord continually, that he may cut off the memory of them from the earth. Let it be seen that their wickedness is not forgotten, though committed many years ago; but prosecute it with a continued vengeance, till nobody remember that there were stich people in the world.

Psalms 109:16

Because that he remembered not to shew mercy, but persecuted the poor and needy man, that he might even slay the broken in Jieart. This will be but a deserved recompence for all his cruelties: for as he let all benefits slip out of his mind, and was ungrateful to those who had obliged him, so he had no sense of that common compassion which is due to the calamitous; but when he saw me in a necessitous condition, destitute of friends, and dejected in spirit, made no other use of it but to persecute me to death.

Psalms 109:17

As he loved cursing, so let it come unto him; as lie delighted not in blessing, so let if be far from him. What can be more just, than that the mischief, in which he delighted, and both wished and designed to others, should fall upon himself? and that he should never meet with the blessing of those righteous courses which he always hated and avoided?

Psalms 109:18

As he clothed himself with cursing, like as with his garment, so let it come into his bowels like water, and like oil into his bdnes. His very business was to slander others, every where) taking a pride in the mischievous effects of his cursed lies: and therefore let hirfi feel the rliiserable fruit of his wickedness, spreading itself, like the water he drinks, into every vein of him; and’sticking as close to him as oil unto the bones.

Psalms 109:19

Let it be unto him as the gamient which covereth him, and for a girdle wherewith he is girded continually. Let him be involved in perpetual misfortunes and miseries, and never be able to shake them off: let him be harhpered with straits and difficulties, without any possibility of getting out.

Psalms 109:20

Lei this be the reibatd of mine adversaries from the Lord, and of them that speak evil against my soiil. This shall most certainly be the reward, which the righteous Lord will give to my malicious adversaries for all the pains they have taken, by slanderous reports arid calumnies, to take away my life: Let mine adversaries be clothed with shame; and let them cover themselves with their oivn confusion, as with a mantle.] Which shall so increase the confusion of my malicious adversaries, that they shall not be able to bear the disgrace: but wish they could hide themselves from the sight of their shame, which their own wickedness hath brought upon them.

Psalms 109:21

But do thou fdr me, O God the Lord, for thy name’s sake: becduse ihy mercy is good, deliver ihoit me. Which I commend to thy protection, O Lord, the governor of all things; beseeching tb6e to take ihy part, and appear for me; though not fbf my honour, yet for thy own; whose kindness is so exceeding bountiful tirito ali, that for that Reason I am encouraged to hope thou wilt deliver me; to whom thou hast engaged thyself by many promises Of mercy.. •

Psalms 109:22

For 1 am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded within vie. Which I never needed more than now: for 1 am so poor, and forsaken of all my friends, (1 Sam. xxv. 8, &c.) that I am ready to faint away with grief and sorrow, like one that is wounded at the very heart.

Psalms 109:23

1 am gone like the shadow when it declineth: lam tossed ixp and down as the lociist. The evening shadow doth riot vdnish sootier" than’ I, from the place of my present abode: (1 Sam. xxii. 1. 3. 5. xjciii. 13,14.) which I am forced to quit On a sudden; and to wander like the locust, vrtiich flies, or is driven, with the wind, uncertainly from place to place.

Psalms 109:24

My knees are weak through fasting; and my flesh faileth of fatness. And for want of food in those desert places, I am sometimes 1 scarce able to remove: for my body, which her^toforfc vfos plump arid fat, (1 Sam. xvi. 12.) is now grown lank arid thin, like one of those miserable lean creatures.

Psalms 109:25

I became also a reprdach tMt&them: when they looked upon me they shaked their heads.* Which, instead of moving their pity, hath exposed irie to sudh contempt and scorn, that when I am seen by any of therri, they deride and scoff at me as anundone vtfretch, that vainly hopes to escape their hands. Ver. 2G. Help me, O Lord my God: O save me according to thy mercy.] But my hope is, that thou, O Lord, who hast hitherto been my most graciousGod, wilt’ seasonably interpose for rriy relief: and deliver me, out of that tender mercy, which is wont to extend itself to those who have nothing else to depend upon.

Psalms 109:27

That they may know that this is thy hand; that thou Lord hast done it. Whereby 1 they themselves ma^ be convinced, and forced to acknowledge, that, not by chance, no more than by my’ small forces, but by thy almighty power alone, and thy care of me, O Lord, I am delivered* 2P2

Psalms 109:28

Let them curse, but bless thou: when they arise, let them be ashamed; but let thy servant rejoice. Thy blessing and protection 1 implore; which if thou wilt vouchsafe me, let them go on to curse and slander me as long as they please; it shall not hurt me: nay, let them assault me with armed force, they shall only be confounded at their vain attempt; and give thy servant the greater cause to rejoice at their disappointment.

Psalms 109:30

I will greatly praise the Lord with my mouth; yea, I will praise him among the multitude. In hope of which defeat, I vow beforehand to the Lord the best expressions of my gratitude that I am able to make: not only in private, but in the greatest assemblies; where I will not cease to praise his almighty love.

Psalms 109:31

For he shall stand at the right hand of the poor, to save him from those that condemn his soul. And bid them trust in God, who hath pleaded my cause, and rescued me from death; and will ever be the advocate of him that hath no helper, but depends on his goodness, to deliver him from the hands of those judges, who prosecute the unjust sentence they have passed upon him to lose his life.